Desert Tortoise: The Mormon Tabernacle on Temple Square

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 35, 1967, No. 4

DESERT TORTOISE: The Mormon Tabernacle On Temple Square

BY ROBERT C. MITCHELL

F or one hundred years the Salt Lake Tabernacle has stood like a giant tortoise in the desert. And like the tortoise shell, the famed Tabernacle shell and underpinnings have been adapted to meet the needs of contemporary occupants over the century.

A balcony, which is said to have improved acoustics as well as increased seating capacity, was added in 1870; the celebrated Joseph Harris Ridges organ was remodeled and enlarged; lighting and steam heat were innovations; an aluminum roof, possessing greater durability than either the original split wood shingles or the replacement metal roof applied about the turn of the century, was added in 1947; a tiled baptistry eliminated a marble-font version; podium changes and arrangements were numerous; and a myriad of major and minor adaptations were effected in the Tabernacle.

The building replaced the Old Tabernacle situated in the southwest corner of the Temple Block, where the Assembly Hall now stands. The Old Tabernacle served from 1852 until the new building was completed.

Construction on the Desert Tortoise began in 1863, after a survey was made by Jesse W. Fox, the territorial surveyor. During church conference that spring, Daniel Hanmer Wells, Brigham Young's second counselor, announced that a tabernacle would be built that would seat 10,000 persons comfortably.

Proposed specifications for the structure were announced by Church Architect William H. Folsom in the Deseret News. But the finished building shows a departure from those specifications, Henry Grow, a former Pennsylvanian and a bridge builder, applied arching lattice supports, characteristic of bridge construction, to the roof. He also was credited with being a designer and builder on the project. Other than the building's general shape which was suggested by Brigham Young, what actual credit for design belongs to whom remains in dispute. And there is some question whether detailed plans for the building ever existed. It was Mr. Grow who compared the building with a tortoise in the Salt Lake Telegraph on October 6, 1867.

Three days before the July 26, 1864, cornerstone laying, the Salt Lake City Council voted to contribute money toward construction of the new building.

It was motioned by Counselman [sic] Burton and carried that the sum of five hundred dollars be appropriated toward the erection of the new Tabernacle now being built in this city; that the mayor be requested to communicate by note or otherwise to Pres't. Young the action of the council notifying him that said appropriation was subject to his order.

The Tabernacle was completed enough to be opened for the semiannual conference of the church in October of 1867, but the building was not dedicated until October 9, 1875. The giant tortoise is 250 feet long by 150 feet wide and 80 feet in height. The roof rests on piers of red sandstone that vary from 10 to 12 feet apart. More than a million feet of lumber was used in the roof alone. Lumber was provided under contract by Joseph A. Young, son of Brigham.

When the building was opened for use, it was a marvel of its time — the largest indoor auditorium in the youthful Zion. And ironically, when the centennial was commemorated October 9, 1967, the Tabernacle was still the largest indoor auditorium in Utah.

I he Tabernacle's evolvement from an exclusively religious edifice to a place for dignified but secular lectures and entertainment was slow at first, but the pace of such activity became anything but tortoise-like after 1884. Though religiously related and dealing with whether the Bible sanctioned polygamy, a debate between Elder Orson Pratt, of the Council of the Twelve, and Dr. John P. Newman, U. S. Senate chaplain, has been described as the first recorded "non-religious" use of the structure. But it was the feminine guile of Adelina Patti, world-renowned operatic singer, and the agressiveness of impresario James Henry Mapleson that are credited with paving the way for non-religious, admission-charged entertainment to be held in the Tabernacle.

During an 1884 tour of the West with Her Majesty's Opera Company, Mme. Patti amused herself the day of her arrival in Salt Lake City by visiting the Tabernacle. Both she and Mr. Mapleson were calculating and solicitous of Mormon authorities in an effort to use the building for a concert. They were impressed with the building's acoustical quality. Mapleson recounted the visit:

On entering this superb building, excellent in an accoustic point of view, and capable of seating 12,000 persons [this was an exaggeration], the idea immediately crossed my mind of giving, if possible, a concert there on our return from San Francisco; but I was unsuccessful in my endeavors to< obtain the use of it. I thereupon resolved that Mdm. Patti should invite the Mormon Prophet himself, together with as many of the twelve apostles as we could obtain, to visit her private car, then outside the station; and a splendid dejeuner was prepared by the cooks. The next morning the Prophet Taylor came, accompanied by several of his apostles. Mdm. Patti took great care to praise the magnificent building she had visited the day previously, expressing a strong desire that she might be allowed to try her voice there, which led on to my offering that a regular concert would be more desirable . . . .

Several apostles countered Mapleson's proposal by explaining that the building was not intended for any such purpose, but was simply a place of worship. But Mme. Patti was not stymied. Again, she launched into enthusiastic praise of Mormon doctrine and even expressed a strong wish to join the church. Persistence had its reward, and after hearing Mme. Patti try her voice in the building, President John Taylor granted permission for the famed singer to hold a concert on her return trip.

Meanwhile, the Mormons had been enthusiastic at the idea of their magnificent Tabernacle echoing with the tones of Adelina Patti. President Taylor, the prophet of the Mormon Church, assisted in the preparations made to receive the great songstress. A special line of the railway had been laid down from the regular main line of Salt Lake City to the Tabernacle, and on it the special train ran without a hitch up to the very door of the building.

The Deseret News announced that the Tabernacle would be lighted by gas jets and heated with steam, if needed, "and the audience will be made comfortable while listening to the world's greatest singer and her satellites." Old timers described Mme. Patti's concert as being the first time the Tabernacle was either "let or het."

The great singer's concert, April 1, was considered one of the extraordinary events in the territory and was praised by reviewers.

The coming of Patti has driven from our minds the remembrance of all former favorites . . . . Even Gerster [Patti's rival who appeared with Her Majesty's Company at the Salt Lake Theatre], brightly as she shone, is now in the shadow, and must with all others who have delighted us in the past henceforth hide a diminished head ...

It was fitting that Mme. Patti, who paved the way for other entertainers, would mark her conquest amid "thunders of applause." She was dressed in an elegant satin of white and azure with lace and pearl trimmings and "glittered from head to foot with diamonds."

Patti came, saw, liked, and conquered and set the stage for other artists to appear in the building, including Nellie Melba, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Lili Pons, Ignace Jan Padewreski, Lauritz Melchior, Lawrence Tibbett, John Charles Thomas, Nino Martini, Richard Crooks, John Philip Sousa, Fritz Kreisler, Vladimir Horowitz, Rise Stevens, Igor Gorin, Artur Rubinstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Marian Anderson, and many others. Various famed symphony orchestras and singing groups have performed there also.

Although Mme. Patti broke the tradition of the Tabernacle being used solely as a religious meeting place, certain rules governing its use were still retained. One such rule, forbidding costumed performances, caused the cancellation of a 1927 appearance of the great Feodor Chaliapin. The singer was to have starred in The Barber of Seville.

Today, the Tabernacle is the home of the Utah Symphony and the Salt Lake Tabernacle Choir, is the scene of annual presentations of The Messiah, and is the place where many top-level cultural events, aside from religious conferences, are held.

Samuel S. Bateman, chief custodian of the Tabernacle from 1935 to 1963, was unofficial greeter and has probably guided more famous persons through the building than anyone else. He remembers many "heart stirring events," such as Helen Keller, blind and deaf from birth, placing her hands on a wall of the speaker's stand to "hear" the great organ. She nodded her head in approval and told her aid that she had "heard" its sounds.

Shirley Temple, who captured the hearts of nearly everyone during the 1930's, added Mr. Bateman's own to her collection. "Shirley, who was seven or eight, attended the pin-dropping demonstration and was so thrilled when I gave her the pin that had been dropped that she later sent me two pictures of herself."

It was Mr. Bateman who guided Nelson Eddy through passageways of the cavernous Tabernacle basement and out another entrance to avoid fans who mobbed the exits. Mr. Bateman also guided Alfred Landon, Thomas E. Dewey, and Wendell Wilkie (all U. S. presidential candidates) on a tour of the latticed beam attic under the great tortoise shell. "Wendell Wilkie was impressed with the original rawhide bindings on some of the beams. He tried to scratch the rawhide but could not because it was too hard," Mr. Bateman said. Other presidential candidates — James G. Blaine, Adlai Stevenson, Richard M. Nixon, and Barry Goldwater — have visited or spoken in the Tabernacle.

Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft (who carried Utah in the three-way 1912 election between Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Taft), Woodrow Wilson, Warren Gamaliel Harding (whose Tabernacle podium included only two microphones during his 1923 visit), Herbert Clark Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson have spoken in the Tabernacle. Of the Presidents since 1900, only "Silent Cal" Coolidge was not heard in the Tabernacle as either President or a candidate for the office.

President Wilson made Salt Lake City one of 26 major stops on his 9,981-mile trip to take his League of Nations fight to the people.

At Salt Lake City the speech was to be in the Mormon Tabernacle at eight in the evening. At six, Tumulty [Wilson's secretary] came to the hotel where they were resting and said the Tabernacle was so packed that the police had locked the doors .... Inside, fifteen thousand people sat in an unventilated building on a very hot night. The heat and fetid air made the First Lady sick and blind. They went up on the rostrum, where the hot thick air was even more stifling, and she thought she was going to> faint. Her maid saw her getting white and passed up a bottle of smelling salts which she gratefully inhaled and then poured onto a handkerchief for the president. He was in agony from the terrible pain in his head and choking from the asthma and the poor air, and when they got back to' the hotel his clothing was soaked through with perspiration.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared in the Tabernacle at the funeral of former Utah Governor George Dern, who was Secretary of War in the Roosevelt cabinet. Eight cabinet members also attended the Tabernacle service for Secretary Dern, who had held his position only one year when he died August 28, 1936. Dern was Utah's sixth governor, serving from 1925 through 1933.

Funerals of many church officials and civic leaders have been held in the Tabernacle. The funerals of all church presidents were held there, with the exceptions of the Prophet Joseph Smith and President Joseph F. Smith (his was a graveside service because of the dread Spanish Influenza epidemic which discouraged gatherings of people).

Services of other governors, including that of the first Utah chief executive, Heber Manning Wells, were held in the Tabernacle. Funerals were also conducted there for former Utah Senator Reed Smoot and J. Reuben Clark, Jr., who had been the U. S. ambassador to Mexico.

Among the roll of happy events held under the great dome was the 1868 Independence Day celebration program, the first of its kind held there. After residents were awakened at 5 A.M. by music from bands of Captain Croxall, Captain Beesley, and Captain Parkinson, students representing all schools filed into the Tabernacle. After they were seated, others were allowed to enter the building. Dignitaries lined the stand, whose front and canopy supportive shafts were draped with the national flag. Among them were Presidents Young and Wells; Elder Orson Pratt, chaplain of the day; Elder John Taylor; Colonel F. H. Head, orator; Governor Charles Durkee; George A. Smith; and George Q. Cannon. Governor Durkee, who was to leave office two years later "enjoying the general respect and good feelings" of the Mormons, spoke on the theme that just principles make just government and not the names, such as democracy or republicanism, which are attached to it. He said:

Let us resolve today, in the sight of God our Everlasting father, to be more united in the cause of duty, of benevolence, of charity, of industry, and the maintenance of the principles of civil and religious liberty; and no matter who the man may be, whether Methodist, Baptists, Mormon, or anything else, who lives according to those principles; those who- live them are true saints and doers of the Almighty's will, and they have revelation, joy and peace.

Among the very early celebrations held in the Tabernacle, the Deseret Sunday School Union Jubilee of July 24, 1875, was perhaps the first occasion for which the building was lavishly decorated. A Deseret News account of the celebration shows that era's flowery way of decorating as well as writing:

. . . The scene as a whole has perhaps never been surpassed for beauty in the Utah Territory. The decorations were simply magnificent. The large center piece, trees and festoons, of evergreens and artificial flowers appeared to metamorphose the huge ceiling into an inverted garden. Over the gallery, at the east end, was a very fine banner with the words "Deseret Sunday School Union" in large letters with a beehive, of flowers and shrubbery in the centre, painted by Morris and Weggeland. Then there were flags, hanging baskets, banners, and other things too numerous to mention, tastefully arranged along the front of the gallery and between the pillars, all heightening the beauty and gaiety of the effect. One beautiful feature, which attracted great attention, was the fountain of living water, near the middle of the building, toward the stand, which sent forth a graceful spray. In this basin of the fountain were live water lilies and on each of the four corners a crouching lion, on which were seated four children, in costume representing the four quarters of the globe, Europe, Asia, Africa and America, the latter two being genuine specimens. Surmounting the organ was a gilded and shaded figure of an angel sounding the Gospel Trumpet, to "every kindred, tongue and people," and on the stand were children from every country on the globe, where the Gospel has been preached, and from whence converts have gathered in this dispensation.

Several happy events held at the Tabernacle were the 1896 Statehood Day program, at which time Governor Heber M. Wells was inaugurated; the 1930 L.D.S. Church centennial celebration, whose Tabernacle production was entitled Message of the Ages; and a gigantic pageant and other activities of the 1947 centennial commemoration of the arrival of the pioneers in Salt Lake Valley.

For the 1896 Statehood Day affair (it fell on Saturday, January 4, but was officially celebrated the following Monday) there was suspended from the Tabernacle ceiling what has been described as the largest United States flag ever made. The flag was about 75 by 160 feet in size and was sewn at the ZCMI overall factory on South Temple.

The flag was delivered to John Starley, the first permanent landscape gardener and foreman of the Temple Block, who also was responsible for decorating the Tabernacle for special occasions. The flag was spread over the seats and rings were sewn to it to correspond with the ceiling vent holes. The flag was then pulled into position near the ceiling. One star in the flag, Utah's, was illuminated.

The gigantic flag continued to hang in the Tabernacle until it was taken down to be hung on the south side of the Temple for the July 24th celebration. It was hung there each July for several years until it reached such poor condition that it had to be burned. Five men were required to handle it because of its size.

In addition to the huge flag, the 1896 Statehood Day decorations included bunting and a great American eagle which surmounted the tower between the pipes of the organ, with the word "Utah" electrically lighted below it.

After being inaugurated in the Tabernacle program, Governor Wells, then only thirty-six years old, called for a special session of the legislature for 2:00 P.M. that day. The inaugural was preceded by a parade witnessed by throngs of people and included military units, state officials, 1847 pioneers, Grand Army of the Republic members, and others.

Events of both solemn and happy occasions held under the giant tortoise' acoustical shell have utilized the Tabernacle's two finest accessories — the Tabernacle Choir and organ.

The choir has been directed by eleven men — John Parry, Stephen Goddard, James Smithies, Charles J. Thomas, Robert Sands, George Careless, Ebenezer Beesley, Anthony C. Lund, J. Spencer Cornwall, and Richard P. Condie. Robert Sands was director when the Tabernacle was opened in 1867. Evan Stephens, who was the choir's director for twenty-five years, composed the state song, "Utah, We Love Thee." The choir's weekly broadcast, inaugurated in 1929, is the oldest continuously broadcast noncommercial radio program. Some of the choir's 375 members have sung with the group for forty years.

Tabernacle Choir singers won plaudits for singing at the 1893 Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and more recently under Director Richard P. Condie have won a gold record and "Emmy" for their rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," which became a national best seller.

Joseph Harris Ridges' original Tabernacle organ, remodeled and expanded, was begun in 1866, but was not completed in time for the instrument's dedication in October of 1867. By dedication time only about seven hundred of the nearly two thousand pipes planned for the organ were finished.

Mr. Ridges, an English native who emigrated from Australia to America, had been a carpenter and an organ factory employee. He was assisted in building the Tabernacle organ by Shure Olsen, Niels Johnson, Henry Taylor, Frank Wood, and others. It has been suggested that the organ of the Boston Music Hall may have inspired Mr. Ridges in constructing the exposed portion of the organ with its huge decorative and speaking pipes, which are visible to Tabernacle visitors today.

Nearly one hundred men worked simultaneously on the organ project. Some experimented with glue making; some fashioned tools with which to carve the wood. People from various settlements sent samples of wood from their locales to be considered for use in the instrument. Fine grain wood that had few knots and little gum or pitch was selected from the Pine Valley, near St. George, Utah. In November of 1867, when the organ was nearing completion, Mr. Ridges gave a description of what the organ contained and stated that builders had used twenty-five thousand feet of lumber in its construction.

The organ has been overhauled, expanded, and improved several times. The first renovation was made in 1885 by Niels Johnson, one of Mr. Ridges' associates. An organ of finer tonal quality resulted. The W. W. Kimball Company, of Chicago, updated the organ once again in 1900. The instrument was enlarged and a new mechanism was added. Austin Organ Company, of Hartford, Connecticut, overhauled the organ in 1915. The fifteen-foot wings or extensions were added to the visible portion at that time.

The Tabernacle organ, though it has in effect been several organs over the past one hundred years, continues to elicit favorable comment from visitors and coast-to-coast radio listeners. Its music once caused Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink, the great Austrian-born contralto, to comment that she counted the music of the organ as one of the greatest pleasures of her life.

During its first hundred years, the Tabernacle has not been without threats from the elements, from wood hungry insects to fire. On several occasions the building was closed because of disease epidemics and war.

One brush with fire came in 1938 when a man, self-described as the "Prophet of the Living God," led several others in spraying the south wall of the building with gasoline and touching a match to it. The man, who claimed to have had "personal talks with God," reportedly said he had been denied use of the Tabernacle to tell of his experiences, and that his group was not actually attempting to destroy the building. Persons inside the building were unaware of the incident. The men, who wielded wagon-spoke clubs, shouted passages of scripture and warned of impending danger to anyone attempting to stop them, however. Several spectators were hurt in the melee when they tried to stop the men.

In 1942 it was announced that all public meetings in the Tabernacle would cease, including noon organ recitals, for the war's duration. The recitals were broadcast over KSL Radio, and Sunday Tabernacle Choir broadcasts were listened to by spectators in the Assembly Hall and Bureau of Information, but not in the Tabernacle. Officials of the church explained the action was taken as a precaution to safeguard the lives of people and the building itself. Church authorities indicated that if crowds were not permitted in the Tabernacle the building might not be bombed as a moral-defeat type of enemy attack, aimed only at the people who might be inside. The reopening of the Tabernacle in August 1945 was regarded by many as an omen of peace.

In May 1947 the dome of the great Desert Tortoise began to "shine like a new dime." Strips of a new aluminum roof, which would weigh thirty thousand pounds, were being installed to replace the roof of patched copper which had been laid over the original wood shingles. Jed L. Ashton was the contractor, and the Overly Manufacturing Company provided the prefabricated metal strips.

The Tabernacle was once again closed in 1962 because of an extensive renovation program. During the renovation, 324 native pine benches were reinforced and refinished. A newspaper article aptly cited the reason for this: "Cracks in some of the benches have [been] known to pinch sitters during the past few years and the square benchlegs have contributed to numerous snags of women's hose."

The Tabernacle's plastered ceilings survived without cracking several minor earthquakes that have jostled the valley floor. Steps have been taken to prevent plaster from falling should other tremors hit.

A tour of the Tabernacle basement shows many chalk marks of "D" and "T" on huge supportive timbers. These stand for places where dry rot and termites seemed apparent. Several years ago, under the direction of then Presiding Bishop LeGrand Richards, a crew worked ten months removing six hundred cubic yards of earth and placing new supports and concrete work on which massive timbers would rest. Earth was removed to prevent ground contact with the timbers, which were treated with creosote and capped with metal to prevent future termite infestation.

But like the aged tortoise, whose shell is scarred from the elements, the Tabernacle, with many repairs and adaptations, continues to function and should be extant for people to marvel at for another hundred years.

In June of 1870 Brigham Young said he hoped and prayed that people from throughout the world would come to the Tabernacle to partake of the spirit of the building and the music of the great organ and choir. That it today remains sturdy as a place of worship and cultural events and as the potential site of such activity a hundred years hence, seem to be a fulfillment of the great colonizer's desire.

July 4, 1887 . . . the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, took fire from the alighting of a toy balloon, from the fire works, on the roof, but the flames were promptly put out by the fire brigade before much damage. (Andrew Jenson, Church Chronology, A Record of Important Events Pertaining to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City, 1899], 149.)

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